New Directions

John McCain – Unfit for Command?

John McCain is fond of saying that he is the candidate who is best qualified to be Commander in Chief.I thought it might be interesting to see if his claim really stands up to the facts. The position of Commander in Chief is only one of many powers designated to the President of the United States by Article Two of the U.S. Constitution.The Constitution does not specify any medical requirements for this role; however, we might want to look at the regulations of the U.S. military, just for comparison.Isn’t it reasonable to expect that our commander in chief meet, more or less, the same medical requirements that our highest-ranking generals and admirals must meet? These requirements have been established to insure that the leaders of the Army, Navy, and Air Force are capable, physically and mentally, of meeting the stressful requirements of that position.

U.S. military regulations specify mandatory retirement for general officers at age 62.This can be extended to age 64 on special occasions.If John McCain were to be elected in November, he would be 72 years old on the day of his election.His age alone would disqualify him from being a general officer in the U.S. military, and should raise doubts in our minds about his current competence, even if he was a war hero 40 years ago. But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’s Superman or something.

OK.How about his overall intelligence?

Let’s see…John McCain is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He finished fifth from the bottom in his class!He ranked 894th out of 899 students.Not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, was he?

Recently, when asked about his computer skills, skills that we expect every ten-year-old to have, he said he doesn’t know how to use either a PC or a Mac. In the age of computers, he said that he is computer illiterate.

OK.How about his judgment on important issues?

John McCain called for the invasion of Iraq immediately after 9/11, even before George Bush had even thought about it.There was absolutely no evidence, then or now, that Iraq had any role at all in 9/11.Recently, John McCain said he was prepared to stay in Iraq for 100 years in order to achieve victory, but President Bush, our Commander in Chief, has essentially agreed to Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw all U.S. troops in a couple of years.

In 1989, the Senate Ethics Committee accused five U.S. Senators (known as the Keating Five) of corruption; one of these was John McCain. Ultimately, he was cleared of the corruption charges; however, the Senate Ethics Committee did say that he had acted improperly and that he was guilty of “poor judgment”.

Recently, John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential nominee. Sarah has no Washington experience and less than two years experience as governor of Alaska.Yet, in the event that John McCain died in office or became incapacitated, (Something he should consider out of a sense of responsibility for the American people) Sarah would immediately become President of the United States and Commander in Chief! Is that good judgment on John McCain’s part?Isn’t he actually placing the American people in a potentially very high-risk situation just for the sake of his own political gain?

The truth is that John McCain is a very old man in poor health, continually battling potentially deadly outbreaks of malignant melanoma. As a student, he performed very poorly at Annapolis.As a U.S. Senator, he has consistently shown poor judgment.The truth is that being a prisoner of war and undergoing torture and deprivation may well qualify someone to be a hero.There are thousands and thousands of Americans besides John McCain who have been prisoners of war and undergone torture.They all certainly deserve the honor that is given to them.But, if we face the issue honestly, we all know that being a war hero or prisoner of war is not a real qualification for anyone to be our Commander in Chief.

A Commander in Chief needs to be intelligent and wise. He must be possessed of good judgment.He must be physically and mentally fit for the role.He must be calm, reliable, and stable under fire.He must have a clear, coherent vision of where he is going and he must be able to express that vision clearly to those who follow him.

I’m sorry Johnny, but if you add it all up, you’re not the best-qualified candidate.The truth is that you are actually unfit for command.

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